Stress: If Your Phone Doesn't Ring, It's Me

Stress: You may survive emotional stress…

But, you cannot survive physiological stress...often called "oxidative stress".

First of all, what is stress? Stress develops in all of us as a
"wear and tear" upon us mentally and physically from factors in
our environment, though often brought on by our action... or lack
thereof.

Our society has come to an impasse though. We face stress of all
kinds today from a variety of causes:

- Ever increasing uncertainties in the financial and employment
world create stress…
- Medical problems create ongoing stress…
- Marital and family problems bring on stress…
- Stress is inflicted upon us through world events affecting gas prices,terrorism, and war…
- Emotional and psychological factorsnurture stress.

These stress factors are potent but people do survive them and
even thrive. However, you cannot...I repeat...you cannot survive
oxidative stress. Nobody can survive oxidative stress unless
they get outside help (supplementation).

What is oxidative stress?

The newest and most dangerous threat to your life and mine is
oxidative stress. Oxidative stress occurs when oxidative
radicals exceed what your body can quench. Such radicals are
those chemical species which contain one or more unpaired
electrons, capable of independent existence. They develop in the
body as offshoots of cell activity or as products introduced to
the body from the outside.

As an analogy, think of running a car engine as the cell
production and the car emissions the "radical" production. Such
emissions stress the car internally unless removed. The engine
produces products which cannot stay inside the car without
further damage. They simply must be neutralized and expelled.

Radicals thus damage your body. Upwards of 200,000 radical
"hits" is a normal "load" daily.

When radical damage is done, the body can remove the compounds formed by its cell repair system. However, if the body cannot handle the radical burden (with antioxidants for example), then disease can be the result.

Since they are highly reactive substances, they react with all
sorts of cell elements readily. This is the ,stress which can
physically kill. When the radicals do react with your body
cells, they can damage the cells and even kill them. Often, the
damage from radicals can change the cell structure enough to
cause disease such as cancer, diabetes, arthritis, heart disease
and a host of others.

It is known that our bodies cannot handle the radical damage we
face. All of us are in mortal danger from oxidative stress. Dr.
Les Packer at Berkeley is one of the world's leading experts in
antioxidants. He states that 73% of all premature death is due
to oxidative stress. (Dr. Steve Nugent, How to Survive on a
Toxic Planet, The Alethia Corporation, 2006) p. 12.

The implications are clear: Our bodies cannot any longer cope
with the power of oxidative stress which brings on chronic
diseases and premature death in record numbers. Why do I say
your body cannot cope with oxidative stress?

Well, I'm assuming you live amongest us (civilization) and not on some remote island far away from civilization where oxidative stress might not affect you as much. So, unless you're sucking on some herb that nobody else knows anything about, you are affected by oxidative stress.

Why do I say that about stress? For several thousand reasons,
only a few of which I can list below. Oh, and yes, your body
cannot withstand the bombardment without outside help. An
estimated ten thousand radical "hits" per cell per day is what I call
bombardment...and the body simply cannot handle that for long.

Let's stress test from the North Pole

Scientific testing at the North Pole has shown record amounts of
pesticides and industrial chemicals. Polar bears show alarming
levels of toxins in their tissues, threatening their existence.
The point is, alarming amounts of toxic chemicals in remote
areas means heavier amounts among "we civilized" mortals. It
also means oxidative stress for your body.

Fish in all waterways have been found with many kinds of
industrial toxins stored in their bodies. Fats store toxins in
fish and humans. The more fat you have, for example, the more
toxins you are storing. And the more oxidative stress you carry
inside you daily.

Studies concerning the 75,000 + synthetic chemicals created
since 1930 have only begun to show the impact of chemicals in
creating oxidative stress. In 2003, the Environmental Working
Group published a monumental work involving human stress: "Body Burden- The Pollution in People." It was the first study to
analyze amounts of synthetic chemicals in the body. They found
an average of 91 different chemical agents in all the people
tested.

Another of their studies brought oxidative stress conditions
into focus. A study about breast milk was shocking: Every
mother's breast milk contained high levels -75 times higher on
average per participant than similar European studies – of
brominated fire retardants. The mothers were from all over the
United States. Implications for stress? If you and I cannot
escape brominated fire retardants in our tissues...You finish the
statement.

The average infant in America ingests over 100 milligrams of
in-home toxins every day. Studies have concluded infants ingest
110 nanograms of benzeo (a) pyrene. This is equivalent to the
child's smoking three cigarettes a day. Obviously, more than
just stress inducing. This is simply devastating to their immune
systems. But, then again, that is but one example of oxidative
stress.

More than 100 scientific studies have concluded that the
drinking water in cities all over the world contain
pharmaceutical drugs. Consider the fact that according to the
Journal of the American Medical Association, correctly
prescribed, FDA-approved prescription drugs are the fourth
leading cause of death in the United States. What then does the
water-drug problem mean to us if regulated drugs are not just
stress inducing, but life-threatening?

Broad spectrum antibiotics and estrogen-like chemicals
(including PCBs) are rampant in our environment. Both impact DNA
and create diseases, like Parkinson's, which appear to be
genetically caused but are actually caused by these chemicals
and antibiotics. The estrogen compounds also bring on feminizing
effects in boys and men. The stress to our bodily functions?
Well we know the amount of estrogen needed to turn a boy
embryo into a girl is in the ratio of one drop of gin in 700
railway cars full of tonic water. (Ibid. p. 51-51).

The knock out blow of oxidative stress...and its solution.

We harvest our vegetables and fruits green in this country so
that we can send them to market without losing them to the
ripening process. Glyconutrition is the newly-discovered "cell
sugar science" (no, not table sugar) needed by every cell in
your body, needed to offset ...you guessed it...oxidative stress.

Indeed, these sugars are the immune system modulators, according to the four Nobel Prizes awarded in the field of glyconutrition. Without them, oxidative stress will overwhelm your body no matter what other supplements you are using.

Here's the catch...to your stress and mine. Glyconutrition (the
eight essential sugars) forms during the ripening process on the
vine, so to speak. If harvested green, then there's no
glyconutrition...or very little available to combat stress.

No wonder it takes 53 peaches to give you the same nutritional
(and glyconutritional) factors today as you would've gotten in
one peach in 1980. The same truth applies to vegetables and
fruits of all kinds. Could that be the reason hundreds of
chronic disease epidemics have developed in our country since
the mid-1980s?

You must have glyconutrition or you may become the next victim
of oxidative stress. You and I are in harm's way. Oxidative
stress "harm" that is.

You know, I remember the day when doctors made house calls. As a youngster, I went with my dad on many calls to the surrounding
countryside. Perhaps it was just to get me out of my mother's
hair, but whatever the reason, I enjoyed them and saw the
wonders of the mechanical world on the farms thereabouts.

Parents would call when Johnny was sick. Physicians would visit
the home and usually follow-up with a telephone call or two to
make sure he was progressing. If the doctors weren't calling, it
was because they weren't worried. Johnny was going to be fine.
Oh how I wish those days were with us again. You see, today, we
couldn't possibly keep up with all the follow up calls
necessary. We'd be calling constantly, given the oxidative
stress.

So, if your phone doesn't ring, you know it's me.

About The Author:

Dr. Robert Gamble is retired from a very successful medical/surgical career spanning three decades. He is active in researching medical issues such as glyconutrition… www.glycoshare.com